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Letters to the editor

Woodburn Fire Board says measure 24-433 would allow fire district to provide greater benefit to the community

We are elected to be stewards of your resources and investments. We have collectively volunteered for decades because we care about ensuring reliable emergency services for our families, friends and neighbors. As the voter-elected Board of Directors for Woodburn Fire District, we are referring this levy to the ballot for these reasons and benefits to the community:

Key Community Benefits

Help Provide Advanced Life Support Service — Advanced Life Support paramedics bring near emergency room level of assistance to patients having medical emergencies. Funds from the levy would be used to provide Advanced Life Support training to a select group of current firefighters to ensure that a firefighter with the advanced training is on-duty at all times in the District.

Help Provide More Immediate Life Saving Action at Emergencies — When four firefighters arrive at the scene of a fire they are able to take more immediate action to fight fire and save lives without needing to wait for other responders to arrive. For example, a four person medical response team provides better medical care by ensuring tasks such as high performance CPR, breathing assistance, electronic heart monitoring, and communication with the hospital and ambulance personnel can all be done at the same time. Currently, there are only three firefighters on-duty on many days.

Help Maintain the Ability to Handle Multiple Emergency Calls — Funds from the levy would help the District's ability to handle multiple emergency calls at the same time without having to wait up to 15 minutes for back-up from nearby fire districts or volunteers responding from home. Overlapping emergency calls occur more than 300 times per year in the Woodburn Fire District. When 4 firefighters are on duty, it creates an opportunity to staff a second response apparatus with volunteer assistance to help cover the overlapping emergency calls.

One of our goals is to provide you with service consistent with industry standards, the passage of this levy allows us to do that. We urge a yes vote and thank you for your support.